What you do on the eve of the New Year quite often determines what happens in the next 12 months.
That may be true for Centum Investments, which moved away from the equities market that suffered massively this year and bet big on the fixed income market.
Centum’s exit from listed companies shielded it from the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) woes and increased its earnings in high yielding fixed deposits.
Centum, which had 70 per cent allocated to equities by March, cut its exposure at the NSE by 45 per cent while increasing its cash portfolio by 48 per cent.
CENTUM PROFITS
As a result, Centum recorded a 55 per cent jump in net profit to Sh1.9 billion.
Centum exited UAP investment to Old Mutual at Sh180 per share, realising over Sh5 billion, according to its note for the year ending March 2015.
Centum also gave up stake in two private equity funds, realising Sh500 million from the move.
And just recently, the firm entered into an agreement to sell its stake in AON Insurance Brokers.
British American Investment Company (Britam), on the other hand, saw its net profit drop by 77.7 per cent to Sh624.6 million in the first half of 2015, down from Sh2.7 billion as a bear run on the NSE.
Britam had 27 per cent of its investment holdings in the capital markets.
Britam now plans to increase its property portfolio to between 20 and 30 per cent of its investment while cutting exposures at the bourse.
KCB
In the banking sector, 2015 saw Kenya Commercial Bank make Sh11.9 billion net earnings on Kenyan soil, making up 88 per cent of the group’s total profit.
KCB’s net profit for the nine months to September hit Sh13.7 billion.
KCB’s regional business, whose contribution rose from 7 per cent in 2014 to 12 per cent this year, saw Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi and South Sudan jointly grow profit by 74 per cent.
The bank plans to open a representative office in Ethiopia.
KCB M-Pesa product continued to show promise, with Sh4.3 billion disbursed as at September and 1.9 million loans approved since March 2015.
STANCHART
Standard Chartered Bank was not as fortunate, as its profit fell from Sh8.2 billion in 2014 to Sh6.2 billion for the third quarter this year.
The subdued performance was due to the effects of the uptick in bad loans in 2014, coupled with a large net gain on one-off sale of property.
StanChart also blamed the roll-out of the Capital Gains Tax introduced in January 2015 for depressing its foreign inflows into the NSE, impacting its custody business in the first quarter.
In telcos, Safaricom grew its net earnings by 23 per cent to Sh18.1 billion in the nine months to September, supported by a jump in non-voice revenue.
Strong growth in mobile data, M-Pesa and messaging services helped Safaricom stay ahead in the sector.
Loss-making Telkom Kenya ownership is changing as France’s Orange sells 70 per cent stake to equity fund Helios Investment Partners.
Telkom put 17 prime properties, worth at least Sh1 billion, up for sale.
KENGEN
In the energy sector, KenGen’s net profit for the year ended June 30 was Sh11.5 billion, boosted by increased electricity sales from its geothermal power plants and a Sh2.8 billion tax credit.
KenGen earned Sh2.8 billion last year in net profit. During the period under review, the value of its assets rose from Sh250 billion to Sh342.5 billion.
This follows revaluation of its plants, equipment and land which resulted into a surplus of Sh77 billion. The exercise is carried out every five years.
Atlas Development & Support Services Limited, reported a net loss of Sh1 billion during the year ending June, mainly attributed to cancelled and lack of new logistics service contracts for oil and gas companies operating in Kenya.
The UK logistics company that is listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange, has even announced the closure of its Kenyan subsidiaries.